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Running, away from home

This arti­cle about fit­ness in Cairo amused me. When I vis­it­ed Egypt pre-rev­o­lu­tion in 2008, I man­aged some runs along the Nile, which seemed like a per­fect­ly obvi­ous thing to do. I run every­where I trav­el. But it’s true that every­one I passed stared at me as if per­haps I had just shoplift­ed.

There are oth­er major cities where out­door fit­ness pur­suits still seem rel­a­tive­ly uncom­mon, like Paris. But the scene there is chang­ing too. I’m just sur­prised it has tak­en this long.